You Can Enter a Lottery to Buy Black Truffle Beer for $120 a Bottle

Black truffles generally cost hundreds of dollars a pound. We have seen them in ridiculously priced burgers, pasta and now in beverages. Black truffles may now be the most expensive ingredient ever brewed into a bottle of beer.

The addition of the super pricey truffles left the beer itself equally expensive: 22-ounce bottles retail for $120. But that hasn’t kept people from wanting to try this brew from former Goose Island brewer Jared Rouben.

After commercial distribution to restaurants like RPM in Chicago, Moody Tongue now has only about 500 bottles left, which they plan to sell direct to the consumer. But getting your hands on one won’t be easy. The brewery has set up a website where, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on November 14, you can enter to win the privilege of buying a bottle for $120.

Even then “all truffle beer must be retrieved between the hours of 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. at one specific location of Binny's beverage depot” in the Chicago area. It’s truly enough to make your head spin.

Years ago, I was at a beer talk and the brewer who was speaking said that the amazing thing about beer is that, unlike the wine world where the greatest bottles are out of the price range of most consumers, anyone can go grab a six-pack of some of the best beers in the world for under twenty bucks. Moody Tongue clearly doesn’t conform to his theory.